Have you ever imagined being inside a volcanic crater? This adventure starts in the Caburgua area, 35 minutes from Pucón. Along the way you will see traces of past eruptions, with large amounts of volcanic mud from different ages. Along the way you also will receive an introduction to volcanology and specially the volcanos in the area.

Crossing private fields in a hour and a half soft trekking, we climb to the crater. Inside, we can see a natural amphitheater sealed with a green Emerald water lagoon. Without sunscreen we can swim in the mineralizad waters, which is about 25ºC. This place has a varied vegetation and unique concerts in the afternoon, when giant toads and frogs use the echo to liven up the this naturally magical place.

Our ELEMENTOS Hostel is a cozy, eco-friendly bed & breakfast, perfect for your visit to Pucón. We have double rooms and dorms, with private and shared bathrooms. All of our beds have new, comfortable mattresses and warm feather beds. Our spacey bathrooms are equipped with bath tubs and have hot water at all times.

This is the perfect adventure for initial contact with sled dogs and mushing. Your guides will pick you up in Villarrica in their 4x4 Landrover. After approximately 40 minutes, you reach the area Pino Huacho, where the adventure takes place. After another 20 minutes, cross country, through a snowy Araucaria forest, with Volcano Villarrica and the Lakes Villarrica and Calafquen at sight, you are getting really close to the essence of your activity. After a short snow mobile ride or, alternatively, a forty minute snow trekking, you reach the mountain hut, where the dogs are located. You will learn about the equipment (harnesses and sled), but most important, about Huskies!

Pucón surroundings are well known for their hot springs. Leaving the town we follow the shores of Lake Villarrica to the neighbour city, Villarrica. This trip is very short, and continues to the south, towards lake Calafquen. We stop at the beaches of Coñaripe and Lican Ray, so you can admire its beautiful waters and volcanic sand before start a 18 km journey to the ‘Termas Geométricas’.

The ascension to the 2,847m / 9,440ft high crater of the active volcano Villarrica -one of the most active in the world- is a must-do for everyone visiting Pucón. At 7 AM, after a balanced and nutritive breakfast, you go to the base of the volcano, in the National Park Villarrica. From there, you start your five-hour-trekking* through volcanic rock, snow and ice. You are accompanied by experienced, licensed guides in adequate number per group, and always adapting the velocity to the capacity of each team. In the first part of the walk there’s a chair lift which climbs 400 meters high, reducing the walk in an hour. Though no piece of cake, the challenging, but non-technical ascension is feasible for adventurers in good physical shape. The professional equipment provided by ELEMENTOS helps you reach the bubbling, magma-filled abyss of our planet at two o’clock approximately.

If you are rather fit but not up for hiking to the crater of active Volcano Villarrica, this is your hike. From the base “Juncalillo” at 1,200 m.a.s.l., you walk up to the cafeteria of the Ski Center on the volcano, at 1,441 m.a.s.l. From here, you will ascend another 426 meters to have a beautiful sight over the lakes Villarrica, Colico and Carburgua and Calafquén.

Visiting the Cañi Sanctuary, 21 kilometers outside of Pucón, is much more than simply trekking. This hike offers a profound contact with an ancient forest. This may well enable you to expand your awareness wide enough, to begin to sense the mysterious echoes coming down from past millennia. To experience the forest and its rhythms means living the true meaning of deep ecology, as you become immersed in it and start identifying yourself with it.

35 kilometers northeast of Pucón, National Park Huerquehue covers 12,500 hectares of beautiful, almost untouched nature. Next to native flora, like araucarias, coihues, hualles, lingues and tepas, with luck, you can observe condors, pumas, monitos del monte and pudus. You will also find twenty lagoons and waterfalls fed by rivers, streams and springs. Our trail takes us to the Lagoons Verde, Toro and Chico, while you can cherish the beautiful panorama of Lake Tinquilco below and the Villarrica Volcano in the distance. For sure an obligatory tour for all visitors! In winter, this excursion is done with snowshoes, because the trail is under snow.

The Andean Lagoons adventure is a trekking circuit which begins near the Argentinean border, following the international road from Pucón. Here, we find the most eastern point of the National Park Villarrica.

Even though this is a not a very known trail, it is incredibly beautiful and lets us appreciate the impressive sourroundings. The observation of the fauna, wetlands and panoramic views of the Volcano Lanín make the hiking of this trail, surrounded by high peaks, so special. This part of the National Park additionally hosts the typical fauna of the region, along with ancient forests of Araucarias, Coihues, Lenga Beeches and Antarctic Beeches, which are favouring the life of pumas, skunks and Magellanic Woodpeckers.